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CSA - Points to Know Part 1

Strategy• The CSA player has two options: the "Hold em" or the "Go for Broke - Get Washington" strategy.* The basic "Go for Broke - Get Washington" strategy. - Launch an invasion north of the valley to Fredericktown. - Threaten DC, Annapolis and Baltimore. Be careful while doing so; fighting in enemy territory can lead to disaster. - The spearhead of offensive Southern strategy is to destroy Union morale. Taking the capital is the best way to do this. - Even if you have no intention of assaulting Washington, it may be best to pretend that you are. Losing D.C. is the biggest threat to the Union in the early war. If that threat is off the table then those resources normally devoted to the defense of the capital may find their way to New Orleans or some other vital location.- Early in the war, before the North really mobilizes, take calculated risks, be aggressive. Use your better generals before the Federal leadership catches up. - There is no way the CSA can defend everywhere, so don't try. - Don't grant the enemy time to entrench, reinforce, and prepare. * Southern “Hold em” strategy in a tea cup: - The East is a solid defensive line at risk of being outflanked by sea. - The West is a mobile fight along rivers and rail lines with fixed points of defense that serve as fly paper.- There are two points of attack in the West- down the rivers, and by land from Cincinnati to Bowling Green into TN. Put cannons on the rivers and an army in Bowling Green. - The Transmississippi is a holding game that strives to tie down the maximum enemy resources possible.- The highway west of the Mississippi is from Fayetteville to St Louis, with a stopover in Springfield. Don't get distracted fighting for Oklahoma or up into Iowa. - The Far West is raiding and burning. - If you minimize builds and effort in Far West; burn everything.- Burn the Union stockade highway in '61, then hang out in El Paso till the war is over. - The Coast is a naked, one armed, lady trying to cover herself.- If you don't defend the coast at the point of attack, keep your strongest, fastest, meanest 1,000 power division camped out on a rail line in the Deep South. If you move fast enough, you can get that beast anywhere from New Orleans to Jacksonville to Wilmington in 14 days; this will not work if partisans cut key rail lines. - If you decide to defend on the beaches - strategic, coastal cities should be garrisoned with at least a division, leader and a supply wagon. - Defend New Orleans; the first attack will most likely come in the winter of 61-62.• Whatever strategy you choose, you must win battles. Three types of offensive engagements are possible, the Set Battle, Assault and Meeting Engagment. -Set Battle. You want to take an Immediate Objective (IO). This may lead to another IO and so on, to an Ultimate Objective (UO). Do a map recon of the IO. Use the 7 key and find out the terrain and weather limitations. Does your route cross a river into the IO region? A "dry" route overland is less risky because a river crossing has a severe combat penalty for the attacker. Send a recon team in to get as much info on any enemy force in the IO. Estimate the level of entrenchment by comparing the enemy icons to similar icons for your forces. You want to get names and stats for Generals and power numbers for any units. Is it a Corps/Army which might be reinforced by adjacent units that MTSG? Maintain a recon until you can attack to prevent surprises. Assemble a force to win the Set Battle. Use your best leaders with your best infantry/cavalry/artillery mix and solid supply support. The enemy will thank you for not giving 100%.-Assault. Enemy held cities, stockades, forts and redoubts can slow an invasion force or block supply routes. Sometimes, an objective may be fortified. In addition to the normal routine for a Set Battle, extra batteries of heavy artillery can aid in causing breaches. You may wish to make a field army to take IO regions that then continues to the next IO while a slower force designed for sieges performs the assault.http://www.ageod.net/agewiki/Sieges_and_breaches-Meeting Engagement. Your forces are moving to an IO when they encounter an enemy force and an unplanned Meeting Engagement ensues. Think Gettysburg. This is less of a gamble if you plan your moves well. As always, a recon is the best insurance policy. Don't pretend that a region is safe, know that it is. If you detect a risk, move synchronized or so that adjacent units might best MTSG. It's better to be present for battle with ten men than absent with ten thousand.http://www.ageod.net/agewiki/Combat_Explained- If you defend everywhere equally, then everywhere you will be weak. With that in mind, develop an overall Strategic Defense Plan; scrutinize the map from top to bottom and make priorities.• After 1863, the CSA will face a building and overwhelming blue tide.• Against veteran Union player, stopping an all East Union it's very tough for the CSA. They can withstand it only if they go for all East themselves.• Against veteran Union player, when Union puts everything east under competent leadership. It is not impossible to stop him, but it’s very tough to do damage to him. Try not to spread your Corps too thin. Don't spread them 3 regions wide, that's the error most people make. Spread them max 2 regions so all your army can participate in a battle.• If the North does not build factories and blockade fleets, the big Northern push can happen is as early as Spring/Summer '62.• The CSA must hold Manassas on 9/15/1861 for the Union to receive a -10 NM penalty; the event will tell you if you have succeeded or failed on 9/30/1861.• The Kentucky secession event lists the min date as 1861/07/01 and the max date of 1861/08/05 with a probability of 10%. The CSA must have more NM than the Union. If Kentucky does not secede, the game will begin to make checks for it to join the Union. Two checks are required. The first is called 'Kentucky Warning' and will start in March of '62 with a 50% chance each turn. Once this happens both sides will be warned that Kentucky is leaning towards the Union. Each turn thereafter a check will be made with a 25% chance for Kentucky to join the Union.• If you are going to contest Missouri, as either side, it is critical to win Springfield.• The opening battle for Springfield decides the MO Theater.• Burning stockades in Kansas and Indian Territory secures Fayetteville from most harassment and flanking.• After Kentucky is in play, or close to it, expect Missouri to become a secondary theater.• Abandon West Virginia before it snows.• If pressed too hard in the west, trade space for time.• Build up your rail. Using your rail is the key to the game.• Railroads in the Deep South are sparse enough to force single attack axes. This can work to your advantage when slowing advances.• In the West, the South needs to garrison strongly anywhere she wants to maintain and have a mobile force ready to strike back at an invading force.• When limited to 3 armies, placement is usually: 1st army holding Virginia and the capital; the 2nd army in Mississippi holding the Big Muddy and Western Tennessee; the 3th army in Eastern Tennessee holding Nashville and a recruiting area in Kentucky.• Get used to flipping the board, so to speak, and trying to figure out what you would and wouldn’t do, as well as what you wouldn’t want to have happen to you.• The simultaneous nature of CW 2 movement plotting and resolution segments means that players must anticipate their opponent’s activities.• Athena receives increases to money, conscripts, and war supplies at each higher difficulty setting, +50% resources at Captain and +100% at Colonel• National Morale has a normal value of 100. Each turn, if either faction is above or below 100 NM, there is a chance their NM will stabilize toward 100. The game rolls a d100 and checks it against the factions NM. If they are below 100 NM, then a die roll greater than their current NM will gain them 1NM. If you have more than 100 NM, then a die roll greater than your morale above 100 will cause you to lose 1NM. The Union makes 4 rolls a turn, and the CSA 7.• On the Scores & Objectives page, F9, under cbt. power, the first number is actual combat power in relation to you; the second number is a naval power comparison.• Each green or blue dot below a structure represents the presence of 3 units.• If you do not win by NM, the game progresses to 1866 and the winner is the side with the most victory points.• If both sides move their capitals, then neither risks taking a 50 NM hit. The new capital is only worth 10 NM. After this, with NM normalizing, it's almost impossible to do a sudden NM win; the result is a long game to the bitter end and the side with the most VPs wins.• A capital can be moved while under siege.• If one uses the option to move their capital and loses it in the same turn, then the move will still occur, costing them the NM from the event and the ability to regain the 50 NM if they retake their original capital.• If a capital is taken and then lost, even with only a single turn of occupation, the NM lost by the conqueror is only 5. So, if you can take a capital, even if it is only for one turn, then do it. Once you gain that 50 NM, it is not easily lost. The opposition can gain back their 50 NM if they retake their capital, but you will only lose 5 NM and have a net gain of 45 NM.• There is no way to cause Lincoln to lose the election; just make him lose the war.• At the start of '64 there is an event that fires and raises the sudden-death to 60 NM for the Union to capitulate, which is very high, and for the Union to win to 225, which is also very high. At the same time the Confederate sudden-death is set to 25 NM for the South to capitulate, which is low, and 175 for them to win, which is also quite low. However, once the election is over--Lincoln automatically wins the election, and there are no variations here, these two events re-fire changing the frames again. The Union sudden-death now comes down from 60 to 25, while CS sudden-death goes up from 25 to 40. Union win NM also comes down from 225 to 185, while CS win goes up from 175 to 225; a very tough field to plow for the Confederacy. Those events are actually just the election campaign events, which is why they fire.• The "sudden death" change to 60 in 1864 creates a window of opportunity for the South if: the Northern player's NM is already low, he refuses to turtle, and keeps on hammering on Johnny Reb when he is well lead, dug in, and holding good ground; in the blink of an eye, Billy Yank can loose more NM then he can afford.

Target• Washington DC• Objective cities, strategic cities and tent cities.• Cities with stars create VPs.• Destroy elements in battle to win NM.• If you can’t hold Tucson, burn it. Unless the Union builds a stockade in the area, this will deny the North a cheap source of VPs.• Moving the capital to Atlanta reduces the CSA's earned Victory Points by 30 points per turn; this is due to the fact that the new capital only generates 15 points instead of 50.

Tactics• Know the points of attack and know where the enemy is coming from.• Defend objectives and anything the enemy values.• Under the game rules, it is extraordinarily difficult to win an offensive battle against an equal or larger sized force. • Defending with a good force on good terrain is the best way to bleed an enemy.• When dug in and defending, 1 to 1 ratios are not necessary, but try to maintain 1-2 or better odds. Don't forget to factor in terrain and river crossings. In hills, across a river, 1 to 3 odds might be enough to hold. • Form a continuous line of well entrenched stacks in the East; use small units to entrench 2nd row fall back positions.• In the East, the CSA should try to avoid a defensive line wider than 3 provinces. All ANV corps should be in a position to support each other.• Once you spread beyond adjacent areas, there's no way for MTSG to work.• Take advantage of the March to the Sound of the Guns and concentrate at the right place.• Maximize the chances of adjacent forces MTSG by putting them in an offensive posture with active rail movement.• An army moving at Conservative Attack, Blue/Orange, will attack at a slower pace; this may allow its neighboring corps to March to the Sound of the Guns and deliver a crushing blow. • The Rappahannock line is the strongest defensive line for the CSA in the East. (Culpepper and Spotsalvania regions) On day one, have the fixed units in those regions start on entrenchments; don't let the Union cross that line. • If you can take Alexandria, defending Virginia in 1862 becomes a whole lot simpler with 3 corps at Alex-Leesburg-Harpers, with rivers in front and rail linking 2 of the 3 regions. • Hide behind rivers. • Keep an eye on the weather and its effects.• When the Federal invasion force first comes it will be in its most consolidated and strongest form. Eventually it will breach your lines. Zen-out with a cup of tea; maintaining patience while the blue tide spreads is tough. Avoid coffee and over anxious counter-attacks. Wait till you can see the whites of their eyes...• When in doubt it's usually better to stay put and see what happens rather than moving around with no good reason.• If you move you lose cohesion, may have attrition hits (depending on the weather and your game settings) and usually will lose the terrain and entrenchment advantage you get when defending on a region.• Trying to fight as the defender is usually a very good idea. A sound strategy on many cases is “Get there first with the most.” Get first to an objective, defend and entrench and force the enemy to attack you to try get it.• It's probably also worth noting that just moving a force for the sake of moving or because you cannot think of what to do, can often become a bad idea. The AGE-Engine rewards reasonable forward planning, even against the AI. Think ahead, think strategically and use the F7 screen to see where you are and where you need to go.• Trying to estimate how much a weak enemy stack could recover before you engage them is really tough. Especially against a charismatic commander with HQ support. And then there is also the cohesion your force loses each day it marches. If you play with the traffic option it is even worse. Be cautious when launching attacks that will happen after the turn's day 8. Much can change by then; it is possible for weak stacks, given 10 days to recover cohesion, to more than double their power rating.• If you are looking for a decisive battle, hit with Lee/Jackson in open terrain and clear weather. Lee/Grant can attack in open terrain with over a hundred extra elements above the footage normally allowed. • Follow up defeated stacks.• When NM is low, it is difficult to successfully attack.• You can't always pick which units will defend, but you can choose which unit attacks. • Small independent stacks avoid CP penalty, but risk defeat in detail by a concentrated force.• Supply is key: control/destroy supply sources; block supply lines using MC/guerillas/cavalry; keep your foe hungry.• Invading divisions can have tenuous supply lines; find ways to disrupt them to put a crimp in Union operations.• Use mobile forces to slip behind enemy lines to re-establish MC and to destroy the rails linking their forces to coastal depots.• Before a battle, use partisans and the destroy depot card to wreck your opponents supply chain and to cut critical RR lines leading into key areas.• To secure the capital, act as a fire brigade, or to reinforce with fresh troops, keep a division in Richmond.• Always have a mobile reserve with some punch behind your front to respond to the unexpected. • Grow and keep reserves to swap out with stacks in need of replenishing.• Send fresh divisions to reinforce after attacks and to protect units with low cohesion.• Keep reserve divisions positioned on rails for quick moves.• If you do not defend important cities, you will quickly lose them and your reserves will not get them back very easily.• If possible, try for 3-1 when storming a structure.• The problem with forts/redoubts/stockades is you have to decide on keeping forces outside or inside. If the troops are inside, amphibious forces can land units without opposition. This is a major reason to keep units in the field. • The value of being in a fort, city or redoubt is the defender frontage is as clear terrain and the attacker has 25% less.• Have 1/3 to ½ of what the Union can muster to hold against amphibious attacks.• Defend Suffolk just west of Norfolk from amphibious assault.• Reinforce important forts, ie protecting New Orleans, and Mobile with a brigade or two.• When threatened, move the capital at the last moment.• Defending forces can be blended with fixed troops and new unit builds; but fixed units will limit a force's ability to retreat before destruction.• The chief advantage of militia is that their brigades have a command cost of 1, making them the cheapest to command. This suits them best for independent commands i.e. garrison duty.• Militia does not hold up against regular troops.• Ambush only works for stationary units.

Movement• Redeployment is for leaders and supply wagons only; to use the SO, Special Order, your unit must be able to trace a route containing good-order rail lines through an unbroken chain to the destination area. Also, the traversed regions, must have a minimum of 25% MC.• The speed of movement is based on cohesion.• Pay attention to weather; moving in bad weather destroys cohesion.• Avoid movement in the mountains during winter. • Snow can block travel in mountains, both foot and rail.• Mud, often in the spring and fall, wrecks movement, especially for cavalry. Plan accordingly for deployment or retreat.• When shifting troops try to move through non-border areas, so they will not be detected, thanks to the "fog of war."• Red areas mean you may not move into that area as you do not have sufficient power or MC to enter the region.• The only thing that can stop a stack from moving into another region is ZOC, and if their Patrol value is high enough, an enemy stack can block you without going into combat. The Patrol value of the defender compared to the evasion value of the moving stacks is factored through a formula.• Each element has a Patrol Value that represents the ability of the element to block or interrupt enemy movement. To calculate, the Patrol Value belonging to friendly elements are added to the Patrol value of friendly fortifications in a region. This value is not modified by the Military Control value in the region. The resulting value represents the strength of the Zone of Control that friendly forces exert in the region.• Infantry has around 9-10 evasion and artillery has '1'; the lowest value of the lowest 'unit' counts, unit, not element, and units are averaged.• For Zone of Control, only the total police value is important. Mounted elements simply have a higher police value than foot units, so you can get a fairly high police value with relatively few elements.• When moving into an area that contains an enemy stack, if your MC is below 5%, your units will shift to attack.• Count the distance in days to plan and control your moves.• During a turn, if you inadvertently cancel a move, you can still re-plot the same move without time previously spent moving being negated. Thus the time spent moving in the previous turn is not lost, if that stack's move is canceled before it arrives in its target region and the turn’s end is executed. This fact allows a number of fast move tricks.- Once you start a move from one region to another that takes more than a turn to travel, you can create a situation where your force has an unseen head start. This may catch your foe off guard by allowing your troops to appear to have traveled more distance in a turn then is possible.- Off map movement can be tough. In winter or mud, a move can take 32+ days and your force will arrive in an exhausted state. However, in clear weather the same route may only take 17 days. If you have a supply source and can afford to wait, it is often best to hang around until the weather clears before moving. In such a case, on turn 1, order the stack to make the 32+ day move. During that turn, it gets 15 days closer to its goal. On turn 2, cancel the move, but don't do anything else. This means don't move in or out of a structure and don't add or remove anything from the stack. On 3rd turn, if the weather is good, order the move again. This move will only take two days and will lose very little cohesion, thus allowing your force to arrive in fighting trim.• A CP penalty of 5% may cause no movement effect and little if any combat effect. However, a large CP penalty may slow a stack to a crawl and cause them to suffer firing last in combat.• With a stack comprised of standard conscripts, the maximum movement penalty is a 50% increase in movement cost.• The movement penalty at -10% CP seems negligible and it doesn’t apply a negative to combat until units fall to 40% of maximum cohesion. A well-rested force that spends a few extra days marching in clear weather will not have their combat performance hampered much.• Inactive units or Forces suffer a 35% reduction in their movement speed.• Out of state militia units suffer a major movement penalty.• To join two moving forces together, drop the faster force on the slower.• Moving land or naval stacks can try to intercept a passing targeted enemy unit.• Don’t target a unit unless combining or intercepting; instead, target the area to avoid canceled moves or having your force follow the target into areas you do not want to be in.• Move troops in Green/Green to limit travel attrition.• Separate units traveling to the same area on Green/Green can form up and assault next turn.• Always stack leaders with a unit when ending a move in a territory containing an enemy force.• To areas linked by rail, strategic redeployment can instantly move generals, wagons, or support units.• Supply units, pontoons, engineers and HQ's etc. move at the same speed as marching infantry.• Supply wagons move slower than cavalry.• Guns larger than 20 pounders slow movement.• Transport heavy artillery by ship or rail.• If you control the railroads in a theater, and the lines you need are not cut, you can easily outmaneuver your foe.• Invest heavily in the Rail pool. It is important for supply distribution as well as mobility.• Rail and steamboat pools will gradually decrease; 1% per turn for steamboats and 3% for rail.• The rail pool will shrink as territory is lost.• As long as enough rail points are available, rail movement is not affected by CP penalty.• Control+W will cycle through locked units, including under construction units. Control+E will cycle through non-locked units even if they are already on the move. Between those two functions you should able to cycle through the entirety of your land forces.• When using the traffic penalty, try starting out with a small one, but not zero. It is not well understood exactly what effects it has on the AI and how it shakes out.• River transport is not subject to traffic rule, it only apply to land movements. Railroads suffer from traffic rule, but you can use them much more extensively compared to marching with troops.• Synchronize Move is wonky and does not always work the way you intend it to, if at all; synchronized move works only for an Army and its Corps.

Cavalry • The primary use for cavalry is recon. Ample cavalry in a stack give you info on enemy stacks nearby. A cavalry element set to Green/Green and Evade Combat can slip through enemy lines and find out where troop concentrations are forming for future attacks. Four cavalry in one small Division are still able to evade detection well and can also effectively twist up RR tracks if their strength is over 100.• Tactics for cavalry also depend on the theater. Cavalry go from a continuum of strong in the west to weak in the east as the average stack size gets bigger. In the Far West and the Great Plains they are powerful combat units even in small stacks, while in the East a small stack of cavalry would be wiped out by just about any enemy stack they come into contact with. You will need to size your scout stacks to be survivable in their theater, but bear in mind that command penalties affect their movement and stealth as well as combat stats.• Early in the game, be very active with small groups of cavalry; constantly buzzing around the map getting vision, gaining MC and generally trying to make the map the most favorable for you. Be ready to circle behind wounded enemy forces to cut off supply or block retreat paths in the hopes of trapping a wounded stack and destroying it. It's a swarm of bees, constantly moving and doing something.• Once the early cavalry get upgraded to late cavalry, roughly the second half of the game, their scouting stats get nerfed while their combat stats get a bump. Since they are no longer as effective as scouts they are good mixed into front-line divisions.• Give cavalry a Division commander with a high Strategic rating so that they stay active.• If you do not have a 5 or 6 strategic cavalry general for them it is best to leave scout stacks uncommanded so they don't become inactive or fixed in place.• The 4 strategic cavalry leaders guys do not stay active enough for scouting purposes, so they go into corps/army stacks where they can pass their +25% combat bonus to as many elements as possible.• There are 2 things independent cavalry can always do, destroy railroads and block supplies.• The idea of sending a supply train along with cavalry is simply not viable. It would remove a key characteristic of cavalry; their speed. It also greatly endangers a very expensive unit to capture or destruction; not a good idea.• You should have cavalry in nearly every stack close to the front lines; especially 'larger' stacks. Cavalry increases your detection rating and decreases the enemy’s detection. More than 2 per division is far too much, and will greatly reduce the combat power of a division; 1 or 2 is more than enough.• If you have a big stack next to an enemy's big stack, and you can't see their stats, you need more cavalry.• If you form full cavalry divisions, use them to chase down enemy intruder small divisions.• Horse artillery is mostly bogus in scout stacks because they drag down the various stealth stats your scouts use to go undetected and to evade contact.• 100% cavalry divisions perform suboptimally in Corps and Army scale battles.

Intel• Intel is never false. If you see it, it is true at the moment, though not necessarily complete.• Know your foe, cavalry, rangers and partisans are your eyes and ears.• Use the fog of war to your advantage as best as you can.• Use cavalry, rangers and partisans as scouts to track enemy buildup, movement and weaknesses.• If you absolutely need to know something ASAP, don't be afraid to sacrifice some horsemen.• First rule of scouting, never have your scout stacks enter combat.• Avoid moving cavalry scouts into regions the enemy might be in. Chose adjacent regions to spy from. Avoid obvious paths that enemy units might take.• Always give your scouts Green/Green, Evade Combat orders unless you’re confident they won’t get caught.• A key to scouting without getting busted is to always keep moving; the evade combat special order only works if the unit is moving. Using the shift key while issuing orders will allow you to set a patrol between two regions.• Learn to count brigades and guess at their relative power as your intel often lacks detailed numbers.• Your foe will most likely concentrate their best leaders in areas they think are important or have imminent plans for.• The further East on the map, the bigger the scouting stack needs to be to survive accidental encounters with the enemy. • Cavalry divisions make good scouts.• A small, stealthy cavalry division of only four regiments, set to Green/Green and Evade Combat, can penetrate enemy lines and give you a more complete picture of what is going on. If its cohesion is high, this division can cut rail lines deep in enemy territory and usually has enough power to brush aside an auto-garrison and burn up a depot.• Pay attention to the non-combat stats for your individual cav elements; they vary widely between conscripts, regulars, and regulars with experience stars. If you have a two-cav stack but one of them has low Evasion because it is a conscript, well....• Rangers and partisans add abilities to scout stacks.• Send/rail the rangers east across the Mississippi where they can be used as great scouts. Their cost is absurdly cheap, they are faster in mud than cavalry scouts and they carry 4 turns of supplies. • Use hunter-killer groups to chase down the enemy's smaller recon scouts; deny them Intel.• Brigs posted outside harbors can collect information about land forces.• Blockade runners are not going to tip the production numbers in your favor, so don't be afraid to cut a brig loose and send it out as a scout. • Every player should make it a mini-game to find out as much about the other player's forces as possible every turn. At a minimum, the CSA should know how well D.C. is being defended, what Grant is doing and where Union transports are. If the Union has transports in St. Louis, then expect a run on the Mississippi river. If some Ocean Transports are no longer in the Shipping box, then expect a coastal assault.• While it is not a substitute for scouting, the force power comparison in the ledger can be a fairly useful tool. As the war progresses it becomes more difficult to use, but it can provide a decent estimation.• Try to get a good feel for estimating how many enemy forces are in the field. Since a majority of all forces go to the visible front lines, one should be able to discern if the opponent has a large force hidden in the fog of war. This could be useful for predicting naval invasions as the CSA because these forces tend to stay off the map for several turns. Or as the Union when you expect to see at least 20 enemy divisions but can only find 15, and then upon a closer look you can not find a star general like Lee or Jackson; it may be time to brace for an imminent attack.• You will know you have pretty thorough intel when you can see the enemy stack's commander stats and a list of units with PWR ratings. Pay close attention to the "Also Present" stuff at the bottom; these are often inside a structure, but sometimes are just stacks you have minimal intel on.

Military Control• Use units to raise MC to >75% and deny rail use and supply to the other side.• Supply movement is blocked by <25% MC.• Fan out units in surrounding areas to grab MC in areas of interest or possible supply routes. • Watch MC, if below 5%, units will shift to Orange and will attack.•If you have 91% MC in an area, you will force the enemy into a river-crossing under fire; If you have MC 10% or higher in an area, then you are considered to have a bridgehead/beachhead and can enter the region and fight without a crossing river penalty.• Garrison objective and strategic cities to gain VP and limit creation of enemy units by RDC.• To collect VPs you must control the location, and to control a location with <50% loyalty, garrison with either militia/irregulars inside the city or line infantry out or inside. • Mounted volunteers can take cities; early cavalry cannot.• Loyalty under 50% in east TN will allow Union partisan creation. This can be stopped by using martial law and entrenchments to raise loyalty in key areas.• If both sides have troops in a region, neither may increase military control until one side assumes an Offensive Posture.

Raiding• If unopposed, skillful raiders can ruin a supply network. It can take significant forces to defend overextended lines.• When protecting rail supply lines, you may find it necessary to station units in each area the line runs through.• Any combat unit, even a partisan will block supply through an area just by being there.• One partisan on the rail road, and one on each side will block supplies between almost any two depots completely; remember, just because you hold a rail line region, doesn't mean supplies cannot move around that region.• The probability of destroying a railroad is equal to your current power value, with a bonus of 25 if a pillager.• If you really need a specific rail connection destroyed, group up a couple of partisans.• If you launch attacks against rail garrisons, it may be best to target regions with low opponent MC control; winning a battle may remove enough enemy MC to stop rail movement.• Trying to repair broken rails in bad terrain and weather can be tough. Units like rangers may be able to get there faster than others.• When destroying small towns, forts and stockades, the unit you give the order to will burn the structure after 15 days, basically a full turn plus one day. You can give a unit orders to move with a destroy order active; they will complete the arson and then begin to move. The destruction is guaranteed as long as the unit stays in the region for the 15 day duration.• The tool-tip for burning depots says it takes five days, this is wrong. It takes only a day. When a depot is removed, it will does not change the amount of supply in an area. But if the depot is removed, the stored supply is not held back and will be quickly siphoned off by other nearby depots and structures.• The main problem with the South burning coastal depots is that most of them cannot be burnt. Only size one depots can be destroyed. This restriction on 'destroying' a depot larger than size 1 can be circumvented or removed; it is possible to resize depots with the correct RGDs.• A swift and successful strike hitting a large well stocked city is guaranteed to find subsistence.• Use small garrisons combined with a fast moving hammer stack to check raids.• When your opponent unleashes raiders and partisans, have a counter-recon ability ready, or your offensive may find itself without supply lines.• Use a cavalry corps under a fast mover to run down raiders; target the units - not the area.• Partisans can blow up 1 depot level from adjacent areas with cards.• A partisan must roll more than * 3 the garrisoning elements to destroy one level of a depot.• Consider not forming partisans in the mud of winter; behind enemy lines they might starve immediately...wait for good weather.• Hunt partisans units with a leaderless 2 cavalry and 1 horse artillery stack.• Consider raising a partisan somewhere in NW Kentucky and using a RGD to blow the depot at Fort Henry; this will cut supplies for the North's initial thrust toward Memphis.• Eliminate the Kansas highway. Use your Indians to destroy all those forts that lead from Leavenworth to Fayetteville. You want the Union to use the St Louis to Fayetteville highway.• With small forces, the South can wreak havoc on the Leavenworth-Kansas-IT-New Mexico supply line.• You can't burn a fort down if you are in it during a siege.

Battles• Launching successful attacks is one of the harder things to master in this game. • Battle sequence is ordered into days, rounds and range phases. One day lasts up to six rounds.• A field battle is initiated when the following conditions are met: there are at least two opposing stacks in the same region; an “offensive/assault” command posture been assigned to at least one of the stacks; the player with the “offensive/assault” stack must have detected the enemy stack; an army-stack cannot initiate a battle if there are other friendly stacks in the area, including unescorted supply units or a solitary captured artillery.• The stack commitment rules for battles can produce unpredictable results; it is possible that a very small stack may target a large one, or the reverse. It is best to circumvent these situations by having as few stacks as possible in an area.• To avoid having multiple stacks in an area, target your own stack; this combines all arriving forces at the end of movement.• When fighting a field battle, concentrate all effectives in the region, not the structure, for the initial battle.• Frontage determines how many elements fight. Before attacking, check the terrain overlay in the combat area to determine the number of elements usable during any round. This is key to smaller armies defeating more numerous opponents.• To check, click on a leader's stack and press the "7" key for a terrain overlay. Cursor a region; a menu will pop up with the number of Line (infantry & cavalry) and Support elements (artillery) that will fight under that leader in that region. Extra elements count as a reserve replacing any that withdraw/rout.• In open terrain only, (clear/prairie/desert/wood) units quotas are modified by leader (rank)*(offensive/defensive rating) depending whether in offensive or defensive posture: This bonus can be HUGE. A 2* general with a 3 off/def. would get a +150 bonus (+60 for support units), so he could bring about 60% more infantry elements to the fight, and twice as much artillery.• Weather and terrain traversing strongly effect cohesion; unit movement can have a dramatic effect on your forces combat values.• Inactive units or Forces suffer up to a 35% reduction in their combat efficiency if they engage in combat in hostile territory.• In a structure like a city or redoubt, the defender frontage is as clear terrain, the attacker has 25% less.• Out maneuver your opponent; use ground to your advantage; “Get there first with the most.”• When attacking on offensive or assault, that's orange or red, you lose cohesion and terrain advantage.• All out attack, red, gives an offensive bonus modifier of 1.35, but also gives the defender an even larger bonus of 1.5 because your men are not taking cover, etc.• Victory in a battle is determined primarily by the losses suffered and losses inflicted. Even if your force withdraws, if serious loss had been inflicted on an opposing force, it is possible to be considered the victor.• You can’t retreat from battle into a regions where you have less than 5% military control.• Stacks that succeed in Marching to the Sound of the Guns, participate as if they were in the region where the battle takes place, but they do not actually move there.• If there is enough time to make it back by the end of the turn and their movement is not blocked, reinforcing corps will return to their original region after the battle.• Stacks Marching to the Sound of the Guns do not suffer river-crossing penalties or benefit from entrenchments.• Marching to the Sound of the Guns only occurs from adjacent region; it will work even if the stack in an adjacent region is inside a fort or city.• Of course there is no MTSG in the first round; your stack better be strong enough to stand on its own or else you have problems like premature retreats.• MTSG is not possible between different armies.• Each corps that MTSG's into a battle will use the posture they are currently in, they will not inherit the posture of the stacks in the contested region. So, it is possible for different corps to use different postures in the same battle.• The delayed commitment option has a rather large impact on MTSG. It looks like, essentially, the delay settings are the MTSG settings.-The min/max commit chance of eligible corps:-No Delay: Range = 100-100-Small Delay: Range = 65-80-Medium Delay: Range = 55-70-Large Delay: Range = 40-60-This is for the first round of MTSG; for each additional round of combat the base chance will increase by 10%.• A corps doesn't get just one roll or only one chance to MTSG per round of combat; its a lot more complex than that. Seldom does it happen where a stack gets only one chance to join the battle. If a corps fails to commit against one target it can be called upon in the same round to roll against another target. • A corps can join a battle, without succeeding on a commit roll, if an opposing stack successfully targets and commits against them.• When deciding how to array your Corps across multiple regions bear in mind that artillery get extra shots during the 1st round of battle. Therefore an artillery piece at the point of attack is more effective than an artillery piece in a stack that will MTSG. Concentrate artillery at the point of attack.• MTSG can fail within battles; a stack can MTSG one round and not the next. • Inactive stacks can MTSG but there are adverse consequences.• Weak corps who marched to the sound of the guns can adversely affected the battle. This can lead an easy rout on the final battle.• If a force loses badly on the first round the retreat engine does not take into account potential MTSGers when making its retreat decision, so you can get in situations where the initial stack is pummeled badly enough that it retreats after the first round and since there is no second round, the MTSGers don't do anything and you have simply lost a major battle and a key position. Setting your posture to Defend at All Costs (Red) short circuits the pre-battle withdrawal roll, and makes it more likely that they will not retreat after the first round. So, when defending with multiple small stacks across multiple regions consider using Defend at All Costs posture.• if you don't want a Corps stack to MTSG, the only way to truly prevent it, is by setting it to PP (Passive Posture.) Try not to do this with any Corps in the proximity of an enemy stack, unless you are in the process of trying to get it out of the area at all costs, and it is already in motion.• There is no way to 'pin' a stack down. You cannot stop MTTSOG by starting two battles simultaneously in neighboring regions.• Understand who can reach the battlefield and when.• Hide behind rivers.• Attacking across a river is brutal on the attacker; it is simply not something you want to do if avoidable.• When you attack while crossing a major river or invading, landing off of ships, during the first round of battle the defender fires at you while you do nothing but absorb the punishment. Once you've survived the first round of battle, you may fire back. • When crossing a minor river the attacker's frontage is about half of open terrain under good weather. The attacker also suffers a (x 0.75) offensive fire modifier and the defender receives a (x 1.2) modifier during the first round and so on. • If you have 91% MC in an area, you will force the enemy into a river-crossing under fire; If you have MC 10% or higher in an area, then you are considered to have a bridgehead/beachhead and can enter the region and fight without a crossing a river penalty.• Fixed units can retreat, units being built do not retreat; they fight to the death since they cannot move until complete.• Artillery inside a division is immune to capture.• Artillery that is not assigned to infantry divisions will fire on the strongest enemy unit. Artillery in a division with infantry will chose the same target as the infantry.• Typically a battle will end at range zero, in the assault phase. If it does, all pursuing units will inflict their assault damage against the retreaters. Cavalry do more pursuit damage because they have a high assault damage stat, it’s not something only they can do, they are just better at it than other types of units.• Finish off retreating stacks; after combat, take advantage of the retreat algorithm. The algorithm forces the retreating force to go to particular regions. You can block off their best paths by establishing 100% MC or positioning troops in them to force them to retreat elsewhere, preferably away from safety and into bad terrain. Cut off their supplies, keep hitting them so their cohesion stays down and keep them retreating so you can control their movements. Let weather, terrain and starvation do their work while you envelop them and then bring in a normal large combat stack to finish them off. Try to keep them away from rivers so they can't swim away. A lot of times if the weather cooperates they will just evaporate on their own through starvation and attrition.• The most important factors in determining retreat direction are: toward a region with a city ( 5% per level,) toward a region with a fort (30% per level,) toward a region with a depot (25% per level,) and toward a region (10% per land link.) • If a general with the 'screener' trait is present, he can reduce damage while retreating; this trait will reduce damage taken by 50%.

Recovery & Attrition• The PWR number is an estimate of combat effectiveness based on hits, troop quality, and very importantly cohesion; your forces will fight poorly when below 60% of initial cohesion.• The three bars on the unit panels are not too accurate. The game only has an estimate place-holder images with 5 or 6 figures, something like: 0, 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100 percent. Expect a small margin of error when reading the bars. • White ribbons on a unit symbolize empty element "slots.”• In battle logs, the heart symbol represents dead soldiers that must be replaced by spending resources; the grid like icon and the light blue bar on map icons is cohesion. Cohesion represents the general chaos and friction inherent in war. Loss in this area is recovered by rest and is free.• Each hit for infantry is X * 30 = X men; for Artillery it is X * 9 = X men.• After each battle, you will see a Battle Report Screen; it is composed of a list of units involved with colored medallions by each unit. These medallions tell the story of what happened to individual units. Hover over them, and they will report things like: entrenchments, supply, good or bad leadership, luck, cowardice, breaking in combat, and other data.• The Battle log offers more info on the actual game mechanic of the combat. It's a file called !BatteLog in the C:\Program/MyGames/CW2/Logs directory.• Move troops in green/green to limit damage in travel to their destination.• 20lbers require heavy artillery replacements. • If a generic brigade recruited from the force pool is destroyed, it will show back up in the force pool immediately. • If a "special" brigade, like the Stonewall brigade, is destroyed, then it is lost forever. • CSA recovers hits in the field twice as fast as the Union.• The CSA just doesn't bring in enough income to provide enough replacements during any PROLONGED large-scale warfare which should start mid to end 1862. Even with badass leaders and cool armies, they cannot withstand the numbers the Union can throw at them over a prolonged period.• Place units needing replacements in passive posture inside a depot. This will give them priority when receiving replacements. • In order for a unit that has suffered strength point losses to be eligible to receive replacements, it must start the turn stationary in an "eligible" structure. While the unit must START stationary, it may then move during the turn.• If an element is completely destroyed, the parent unit will need to draw a full replacement element from the Replacement Pool. For each unit, this is limited to a single replacement per turn.• A division is a unit and only one element per turn per unit may be replaced. So, if more than 1 unit inside a division has a missing element, temporarily break those units out of the division.• Even if an element wouldn't have spent a chit while repairing itself, it still requires that there is at least one chit in the appropriate pool for any repairs to occur.• In testing, the USA received less than 20 hits from a replacement chit only 10% of the time, but got more than twice the hits that an actual unit would have contained more than 30% of the time. The CSA always received more than a new unit's worth of hits from a chit. So, in the long run, using a chit is always better than paying the cost for whole units and merging. • A replacement chit with one hit or 20 hits remaining is represented by the same icon in the pool. The player can't tell how many hits are left. • Auto-replacements are not included in the accounting the game does for the player, and also not reported in the tool-tips of resources at the top of the map.• Many players turn off auto-replacements; it allows you to have more control of your army and makes you more aware of the resources being allotted.• In Historical Attrition, to receive a replacement element, your unit must be on an unbesieged depot, fort, or a city size 5 or larger. There are others factors that also influence the chances to get replacements: passive units will be checked before defensive, and defensive before offensive; the chance is higher in a region with large supply stocks; chances are be increased for an 'alert unit'; this is proportional to Detection Value x Hide value of the unit; quality units, like rangers etc. receive replacements before line units, and line units will get them before militia.• To fit the alert criteria for replacement, try stacking the sub unit that needs replacements with a small cavalry units to increase high Detect Value x Hide values.• Always ensure units have sufficient supplies; supplies will be traded for some cohesion loss and hits through attrition.• Attrition losses are reduced by 50% if a Force is occupying a Rich region.• Depots dramatically speed cohesion and hit recovery.• HQ and Hospital support will assist in recovering cohesion.• Disease events reduce cohesion by ½. * The Base Daily Rate for land units is 0.75 Cohesion point, modified by: - Entrenched and outside of a structure: +0.5 -Inside a structure: +0.75 -In a loyal region: up to +0.5 - Besieged land Unit: -1.5 - Besieger (unless in Passive Posture): -0.5 - Land Unit transported aboard a ship: -0.5 -Offensive Posture: -0.5 -Land Unit in Passive Posture: +1 - Irregular: +0.5• The base daily rate for naval units is two, provided the fleet is in a port.

Experience• In combat, experience "points" are gained when an element inflicts losses greater than it suffers. Leaders gain experience "points" in combat, when elements under their command inflict more losses than they suffer.• For each odd level of experience, ie 1, 3, 5, etc, units gain a +1 increase in their initiative, discipline, patrol and evasion values.• For every even level of experience, ie 2, 4, 6, etc., units gain a +1 increase in their offensive fire, defensive fire, assault, and police values.• For every level of experience, units gain a 10 point increase in their cohesion value.• Every turn their stack does not move, HQ's and leaders with the Training Master trait add one XP, to each element. This is in addition to the 50% chance nonmoving elements have of gaining an XP each turn; so it is possible for elements that do not participated in a battle or move, to gain 2 XP in a turn.• Line infantry fight better than militia or conscripts. They have a higher discipline number that often allows first fire in the combat rounds.• XP of an element cannot be increase through training beyond 2 EL (Experience Level). Each element has a 'ProgRate' (Progression Rate) defined. This defines the XP level at which an element gains 1 EL, at which time it will gain a Star on its element detail display.• Cavalry upgrade from conscripts quickly and gain stars quickly. Gaining stars gives buffs to a lot of stats other than just Firepower which are not normally useful for Infantry. Cavalry, especially in their scouting role, on the other hand benefit greatly from the boosts to their Evasion and Patrol that come with even just one star. It is worth microing cavalry, particularly conscripts, in and out of HQ/ Training Master stacks to rapidly increase their scouting effectiveness.

Points to Know - CSA, has exceeded the allowable limit of 60000 characters; the message had been split into 2 postings. New material is in orange text.

Leaders• A general can't be both a stack and a unit commander at the same time. If a general is the stack commander and also has a division when a battle ensues, his division will not receive any division command bonuses.• The implication of this is that if you are putting a second general with a divisional commander to prevent the command penalty, it is preferable to make the less senior general the division commander. This allows the more senior general to apply their offensive/defensive rating as the stack commander. It also allows the less senior commander to apply their offensive/defensive benefit as the unit commander, which you note the stack commander could not do.• Leaders provide 4/8/12 command points for 1/2/3 stars; for stacks that are not armies or their corps, cut these figures in half.• Without signal units, balloons, special abilities or army commander strategic ratings, armies and corps max at 16 CP.• Up to four star's worth of Generals can add Command Points to one stack.• In theory, an unattached leader in a stack with a strat rating of 4 and above will add one to an Army's CP limit. This doesn't appear to be working in CW2.• To create an Army Chain-of-Command, you must first create an Army by selecting a 3 start leader not already in an Army Chain-of-Command, nor leading a division, nor combined with a brigade, and click on the Create Army Command SO button. There may be penalties for doing this depending on the seniority of the leader you have chosen.• 2 star and 3 star leaders within the Command Radius of an Army Command may be given Corps Command in that Army. The Command Radius of an Army is displayed by selecting the Army Command stack and pressing and holding the <Shift> key.• The Army Command stack and all of its attached Corps stacks are considered to be in the Army's Chain-of-Command. Units outside of Army and Corps stacks are not considered to be within the Chain-of-Command, even if within the same region as an Army Command or Corps stack.• As long as commanders get an army posting back before the end of the turn, you can rearrange them to your suiting without losing NM. The NM and VP are only lost when the 'end turn' button is hit, not during the turn.• Keep in mind that when you remove an army command that all of its attached corps will be detached. So if you do rearrange your command structure, don't forget to reattach your corps to their armies.• Army commanders can increase their corps commander's strategic, offensive, and defensive ratings, if the army commander's rating(s) is higher in one of the categories.• Army Commanders can get All Shot Up; it is possible for 3 star generals in charge of an army or corps to be killed.• A corps commander's ratings cannot be elevated above the ratings of the army commander, but they can be lowered to those of the army commander. • Prior to Division activation, Ctlr + click on a general and then a brigade in the same stack. Use the "+" icon to merge the two. This gives the brigade 10% additional power. They also get the bonus of a unit and stack commander in combat.• Don't be afraid of the under command penalty prior to Divisions. Once you hit -35%, it doesn't get any worse, so you might as well keep adding more units to the stack. Your opponent is doing the same, so the -35% balances each other out and neither side has a relative advantage.• With a stack comprised of standard conscripts, the maximum movement penalty is a 50% increase in movement cost.• The movement penalty at -10% CP seems negligible, and it doesn’t apply a negative to combat until a unit falls to 40% of its maximum cohesion. A well-rested force at -10% CP that spends a few extra days marching in clear weather will not have their combat performance hampered much.• The -35% for being inactive is a maximum. It can be less though in battle, depending on enemy MC in the region. If enemy MC in the region is <35%, that is the penalty applied in combat.• An inactivated leader doesn't have the power of his stack necessarily reduced by -35%. The penalty of an inactivated leader is dependent on the MC he enjoys in the region and is capped at -35%.So, if an inactivated leader is attacked while stationary in a region, where he starts with 100% MC, he will still be at 95% in the battle, because the attacking stack automatically gains 5% MC when entering the region and is automatically changed to OP, if not already in OP. The attacking stack cannot gain any more than the original 5% MC other than through battle, as long as the defending stack is in good order; ie not in PP.• Leaderless troops are always activated, but suffer from movement and combat penalties.• Inactive leaders lose the ability to perform some special orders.• 3 star leaders can be killed or wounded and removed for a while.• If a leader is alone in a region with enemy units, he may be detected and eliminated.• Know your best commanders, and know them well. Protegee them. Give them the best troops and lots of them.• Unless you are desperate to field an additional army, never promote Hood, Jackson, or Longstreet to Lt Gen (3 star); they are far better at Maj Gen (2 star), especially as corps commanders under Lee.• Jackson is volatile, handle him with care. The smaller the force he commands, the more likely his troops will take a proportionally high number of casualties. Jackson’s men don't break, they never leave the front line during battle. This means they can do the most damage, but they also take the most punishment. Keep him near Lee and others.• The South has a shortage of corps commanders. Try picking some generals from the start and give them a mission to get promoted. Consider sending them out west where there will be some action. Or, failing that, assault some stockades• Use your best leaders on the offensive. You can always dig-in you mediocre commanders in a defensive position, where their being inactivated doesn't matter. But you need leaders who are active most of the time to move aggressively, or to react to an unsuspected move by the enemy.• Many generals cannot be promoted. You can find out who is eligible in game by viewing the general's info panel.• A Leader’s Offensive Rating is increased by +1 for each Even level of experience, 2, 4, 6, etc.• A Leader’s Defensive Rating is increased by +1 for each Odd level of experience 1, 3, 5, etc. • Early on, transfer some good leaders from the East to the Western armies.• Use Forrest hard; Lee said not using Forrest more was one of CSA’s biggest mistakes.• When you have extra generals, place them in active stacks; use them to replace inactive leaders or take command when someone gets killed. • Cavalry under a general can suffer when he is inactive; use high strat generals to lead your cavalry. • Keep your training officers where they can affect the most units.• Have militia waiting for Cooper to train in Richmond; he is available for 3 turns and can train up to 6 elements.• If your promotable officer is not the leader of his stack, extract him from the stack or the promote order will not work. • The ability to increase a general's skills does exist. If they fight and win long enough, Defensive and Offensive will increase with experience.• A Division of artillery seldom takes hits but can cause many. This results in accrued experience without loss and can fast track leader promotion.• Belle provides a detection bonus in a theater of war.• First 3 armies, on March 1862 each side can have 6 armies, and on March 1863, each side can have up to 9 armies.• There is an event that places Lee, fully locked, in Richmond sometime between Late August and the end of 1861. If Richmond is attacked, he will release. Then there are 4 events that can trigger his release irrespective of whether Richmond is attacked or not. 1. LeeTakesCommand1862A - 10% chance per turn he will release between March 62 and June 62 irrespective. 2. LeeTakesCommand1862B - Union has 40 Elements "Close to Richmond" between March 62 and June 62 and he hasn't already released. 3. LeeTakesCommand1862C - Union has 40 Elements "Close to Richmond" between July 62 and Dec 62 and he hasn't already released. 4. LeeTakesCommand1862D - A guaranteed release by the beginning of 63 but more likely to occur earlier starting late June 62 irrespective if the USA is "Close to Richmond."• A listing of the CO's with their adjusted stats next to them is in the Battle Report. In the Battle log you have annotated who led what in the conflict resolution.

Orders• Synchronize Movement is selected by default. When the Army HQ moves, all subordinate corps in the same region will automatically synchronize w/o this Special Order.• Synchronize Movement does not need the presence of an Army HQ. Manually setting the order for two army corps in the same region will have the same impact.• O\O is attack with normal aggressiveness, R\R would be assault all-out, B\R would be defend at all costs, G\G is passive retreat.• Except to hold key places, don’t use Hold At All Costs, B\R. It causes excessive losses w/o gain. But remember that without a hold at all costs orders, a force facing a foe with superior quantity will abandon a important position and seek to retreat.• The manual says Orange/Orange is normal, but postures are situational.• In regions with 5% or less Military Control, stacks will automatically adopt Orange and attack.• When you merge a moving stack with a stationary stack, the moving stack will adopt the posture of the stationary stack it merged with.• Ctrl + F4 will remove all but the selected stack from the map; this will allow you to target an area for movement without tagging another unit or to see structures buried under units.• For non-moving units, if you set the Enter Structure SO button, they will only enter the city if they are retreating, and then there is still a chance that they might exit the region completely instead.

Corps/Divisions• If you add a second commander to a division, it negates the command penalty. • Four 4 divisional officers can create an ad hoc corps of two divisions with no command penalties.• When an army is working with attached corps, keep the army a bit more powerful than the strongest force. This means trying to balance power between an army and its corps. So, a two division corps is ok if the army and all other wing corps have two divisions. But if any have three or four, try to have all at three or four.• Corps with only 1 or 2 divisions that participate in large battles tend to get destroyed.• To form a corps one must have a 2 or 3 star general within command radius of an army to become subordinate to. Select the Army Stack, press and hold the <Shift> key; the blue regions represent the command radius of that army command. • A 2 star commander in charge of a division may not also lead a corps. But if he is active and you split him out of the division, the option will light up.• The higher the strategic value of the Army Commander, the greater the command radius.• If the corps commander has lower stats than their army commander, there is a chance each turn for their stats to increase. This is not guaranteed; each turn dice are rolled and the results will vary. The highest a stat can be increased is 4, and A stat can not be increased higher than the army commanders own stats.• To find out whether and how much a corps is receiving from their army commander, select the corps stack and look in the bottom right. Above the supply ZOC, etc, there will be a tiny silver diamond marking that this is a corps. Hover over it and a tooltip will pop up telling you what benefit he has received.• The Strategic rating of a commander can influence his allowable frontage - the amount of troops he can have fighting on the field at once. However this only applies if the combat occurs in certain 'open' terrain types: clear, woods, steppes, and desert.• Look at the special abilities of your generals. Ideally, you want every stack to have an Artillerist and a Cavalryman in them. They do not have to be in command of anything, just being in the stack gives the whole thing their bonus. If you do not have enough special ability generals to go around, prioritize the Army stack, which definitely needs to have one of each.• The CSA is short on Corps commanders. Get promotions early while you are having successes in the field.• On the turn a corps or division is created, its commander stats are cut in half. The leader’s original stats will reappear in the following turn.• Supply wagons give bonuses and cost no CP.• Try to have a supply wagon with each independent division or corps.• Support units in divisions will require CPs; keep them in armies.• Rangers, and partisans have no CP cost; they can waste space in a division.• A standard, balanced division has the following elements: 2 cavalry, 4 artillery, 1 sniper, 10 infantry and a leader.• The best offensive unit would have a sharpshooter, a couple cavalry and the rest infantry types; a stack of these divisions benefits most from an all artillery division.• In divisions operating in wet areas, try to use one marine to reduce the river combat penalty.• One elite brigade can boost cohesion for the entire division.• Try to build a division around an elite unit; only use one elite unit in each division.• You may have 15 units maximum in a division. That's 1 leader and any 14 other units.• A full strength division has one commander and 17 elements.• Pure artillery divisions with a good officer have no penalties and several advantages.• As long as the guns are grouped together in divisions , ether mixed or artillery only, beyond a certain point hits to an artillery element will be spread amongst the other elements and reduce the risk of the element being wiped out.• The CSA can make twenty divisions with 7 line infantry, 3 conscripts, a sharpshooter, 2 conscript cavalry, a 6-lber and either 3 militia or 3 more artillery batteries.• The best way to attack a line of supporting corps is at the end. Flank them and attack where only one corp can come to aid the other.• Try to not have any brigades that are not combined into divisions in your primary fighting stacks; loose units are easy to destroy.

Units• Make and use headquarters as soon as possible; make good use of support units in your armies.• Place an extra HQ unit in the main location where you recruit so units gain experience points while mustering.• HQs give an extra CP, speed cohesion recovery AND give extra XP per turn; it is like a combination of a Signal Corps and a Hospital, for the same price, that also acts as a Training Master. They cost the same as a Signal Corps and a Hospital, but do more so are more efficient despite their high initial price tag.• HQs are great for use in large frontline stacks that see a lot of fighting: the CPs are necessary for jamming that fifth or sixth division into a Corps or Army, and those stacks tend to see a lot of fighting, so the Hospital actually gets used; a Hospital in a stack that does not actually fight a lot is wasted money.• The engineer and pontooneer elements aid a stack with entrenching quicker. These both can work together to give a bigger boost. They can work with Generals that have an entrenching bonus for a further boost. Also, the pontooneer element aids a stack in crossing a river quicker. This also works with Divisions that have a Sailor/Marine to gain an additional river crossing boost.• The signal and HQ element each add two CPs to a stack.• A balloon adds to the Line of Sight so that a stack can see into surrounding regions for a better recon.• Build engineers for main armies; an engineer will provide a 35% reduction in the time necessary to obtain the next entrenchment level.• Naval engineers speed up the building of new ships and increase damage repair by 10%.• Pontoons and engineers bonuses stack; headquarters and medical do not.• Build hospitals for large independent forces without headquarters. Hospital support will assist in recovering cohesion.• Militia are bugged; militia outside their home state currently have more cohesion than those in their home state.• Sharpshooters, like militia, are penalized for being out of state, but only if they are not within a division.• Light infantry is most effective in rough terrain and harsh weather.• In mud, cavalry moves and fights poorly.• Supply units, pontoons, engineers and HQ's move at the same speed as marching infantry.• Support units provide their bonuses to stacks before their construction is complete. They start working on the same turn construction begins.• You can redeploy under construction support units. No build time is lost when doing so.• The artillery division can serve as a heavy support unit for a Corps or Army. Try putting your fragile support units: HQ, and engineers, into an artillery division. This lessens the firepower of your division. But, except in extreme disasters, it will prevent your support elements from taking any hits.

Supply• Supply is key; control/destroy supply sources, block supply lines through MC/guerillas/cavalry; keep supply from your enemy.• Breaking railroads is not enough to stop supply overland; there is no substitute for military control. Make sure your foe's MC falls below 25% in regions that would block overland supply.• Watch your foe’s unit supply status bars; this shows if supply is making it to his front lines.• To receive supply, you need to be adjacent to, or on, a source of supply, or something that requests supply. If that something is not a fort, depot, or 3+ city, it had better be a wagon or a transport.• Supply movement is blocked by <25% MC.• A single unopposed enemy unit will block friendly supply from passing through a region regardless of MC.• Due to terrain and changes in the weather, supply may range from 1 to 5 areas.• Depots attract and push forward supply; build a network of depots every 3-5 regions.• You must have depots within 5 areas to have a chain transfer.• To locate depots, turn on the supply filter; depots locations will pulsate on the map.• Make sure the supply overlay is green between you and a source of supply.• When you build depots, makes sure they fit into an active network. Keep aligned with active conduits.• Depots pull supply; make sure they don’t divert supplies from areas that are in need.• If a region where you are making a stand does not have a depot, consider making one.• Use flat boats to create cheap depots in key areas containing a port.• Depots may be built in regions where your MC is 51% or higher.• Consider building a depot between Richmond and the front lines; don’t let it fall into enemy hands.• Consider building a depot in west-central VA to supply defenders against WV forces.• Fill the 5 region gap below Memphis with a flatboat to connect New Orleans with Memphis.• If you want to forward supplies from the Deep South to VA, built a depot in South Carolina.• Redoubts and forts are like depots in that they pull GS supply with 20 'pull.' But forts pulls ammo at 20 while redoubts pull ammo at 6. For comparison, a depot has 50 GS pull and 35 ammo pull.• Stockades may be built to create or extend a supply chain.• Supply wagons can suck supplies from structures within range; move supply wagons into the range of a supply source and they will replenish.• Forts and fleets block supply past their position.• Artillery which can bombard into a water region blocks supplies from passing through that water region.• Pillaged areas do not provide supply until the next harvest season.• If you destroy Fort Leavenworth, very little Federal supply will get to Denver and New Mexico.• The tool-tip for burning depots says it takes five days, this is wrong. It takes only a day; when a depot is removed, it will not change the amount of supply in the location. But without a depot, the stored supply is not held back and will be quickly siphoned off by other nearby depots.• Units under construction can burn a depot in their area.• The main problem with the South burning coastal depots is that most of them cannot be burnt. Only size one depots can be destroyed. This restriction on 'destroying' a depot larger than size 1 can be circumvented or removed; it is possible to resize depots with the correct RGDs.• It is not possible to destroy large stockpiles in vulnerable cities. A swift Union strike is almost guaranteed to have large pile of supplies waiting for them.• Limit exhausting the rail and river line pools; unused points enable supplies to be transferred.• It is important to keep Rail and River up to full capacity; supply is pushed in three phases and only goes the last mile if the third and final phase is up to snuff.• Rivers provide excellent supply routes for the North.• Invest heavily in the Rail pool. It is important for supply distribution as well as mobility.

Forts• The main difference between forts and redoubts is that forts can be built in regions without cities.• Redoubts come from RGD cards. Forts come from manual construction.• Forts require 4 artillery and 4 supply elements to be built; it takes 25 days.• Forts can be upgraded once with an additional 4 artillery and 4 supply elements; it takes 15 days.• Level 1 forts can be destroyed with orders. Level 2 forts and redoubts cannot.• Redoubts and level 1 forts can fit 25 elements without overcrowding penalties.• Level 2 forts can fit 50 elements without overcrowding penalties.• Forts have an ammo pull of 20, redoubts and stockades have 6.• Stockades are much more likely to be destroyed in an assault compared to forts. They have a 75% chance to be burned, forts have a 10% chance.• Stockades have a 50% chance to create an auto-garrison to defend it self. Forts and Redoubts have a 100% chance.• The ZOC of a redoubt/fort/stockade can allow even a small force to stop an invading army dead in its tracks.• Many people advocate putting all defenders in the field where they can participate in the initial battle and do not risk becoming trapped in a siege if the field force is driven away. Doing this can help limit NM loses from destroyed units.• If you have a strong enough force to keep an assault out of the 3-1 range, structure defenders with a supply unit and ample supply/ammo only have a 5% chance of surrendering. With enough entrenched artillery, defenders can shred an assault and have a good chance of holding out until relieved.• Don't let a Bastogne become an Alamo. If it is an Alamo, then make it a gambit so that you can strike a winning blow elsewhere. • In cases where you lack overwhelming superiority, initially enter a region in Orange to do battle with forces in the field and drive them away; then on the following turn, use the Red posture to attack the structure.• If you are going to defend inside a structure that contains GS and a Supply Wagon, the chance of your force surrendering is 5%. Once the wagon's GS points have been consumed, this special feature is lost.• Artillery can do a lot of damage if entrenched inside a structure.• Defending a structure is a tool that should be in your toolbox.• A fort without a relieving force will fall to a siege; there is no substitute for a field army.• Forts can be traps. If you don’t have a field force capable of relieving a threatened fortress, or if delaying the enemy is not critical, fight your defending forces and garrison outside the structure in entrenchments.• A fort is fly-paper. It's supposed to slow an enemy until it can be reinforced.• Forces outside, if the defenders survive the initial combat round, may be able to retreat. This might limit the NM loses you would suffer if your force was trapped inside and fell to an assault or siege. In the same spirit, if your fortress artillery might be captured and of use to the enemy, either eat the victory point cost and spike the slow moving guns, or leave them as a trap to be an albatross around your enemy’s neck.• A cover force entrenched outside a key area will prevent an immediate siege.• The problem with forts/redoubts/stockades is you have to decide on keeping forces outside or inside. If they are inside, amphibious forces can land units without opposition. This is a major reason to keep units in the field as opposed to in a fort. • The value of being in a fort, city or redoubt is defender frontage is as clear terrain and the attacker has 25% less.• Overcrowding penalizes forces too numerous to defend structures. The tipping point is: Fort: 25 elements per level; City 10 per level, other 10 per level. The limit is set by priority and is not cumulative for all structures. The defender, if assaulted suffers a -20 penalty to the melee phase per full penalty, and a -10 in the fire phase. The attacker gets a +30 bonus to the melee phase per full penalty of the defender, and a +20 in the fire phase.• Left click on the garrison stack, then drag it over the blue water region next to the fort and drop it. This is a method to put a stack outside a coastal fort, where it is difficult to drop it into the tiny field part of the region.• Put a fort in Paducah, New Orleans, Norfolk, Memphis, Wilmington and other key locations.• Two divisions should be in New Orleans by late October of '61.• Mixed Divisions of infantry, cavalry and artillery are better for defending critical structures and regions, because they have a little bit of everything.• If you play against the AI, the enemy capital will receive a level 2 fort. Humans get a level 1 redoubt in their capital. Be wary when assaulting Athena's capital.• Redoubt are forts built by RGD. They are cheaper than forts, but you only receive 1 redoubt card a year.• Terrain and fort/city bonuses do not add up. Either you are outside in the terrain, or you are in the fort. Putting a fort in a swamp only adds a slight increase to the defense over swamp terrain.• A siege battle is initiated when the following conditions are met: there are at least two opposing stacks in a region; an “assault” command posture has been assigned; the number of breaches equal or surpass the fortification level.• A force in assault posture will try to storm the structure instead of besieging it. The procedure is the same as in regular combat except that the defender benefits from a combat bonus. Permanent forts provide a great bonus, pre-war forts less so and cities even less. Frontage is quite limited in such combat, especially in forts. Defenders in a depot or indian village don’t get any defensive benefit except limited frontage.• Forts need cannons inside them to block river supply or bombard ships. • When a force has over 4 artillery units, put the surplus artillery into a different stack to enhance hits on naval units.• Forts do not have the power to stop large fleets. It is possible for fleets to run past them, with cohesion damage only, and attack cites with water born divisions.• Coastal forts do surprisingly little damage; it’s the big entrenched armies that can hurt forces sailing past.• Hits scored by a bombarding fort are capped at 50 hits per fleet.• If you split artillery units into multiple stacks, either inside a fort or outside a fort, one can multiply the fixed game limit of 50 hits per bombardment.• Consider creating two separate stacks one Coastal Artillery and one Fort Artillery Battery.• Coastal Artillery does not take part in land combat.• If you want your stack to fight it out from inside a fort after losing a battle, set your field stack to use the "Enter Structure" button. Then, If your stack then loses a battle, there is still a chance it will retreat to inside the fort instead of starting a retreat out of the region.• If you lose one of the New Orleans forts it will add 20% to the blockade % as well as hurting the city itself.• You can destroy the coastal forts if you don't want to hold them.• Columbiads and mortars will hit every round.• If possible, try for 3-1 when storming a structure.• Trench levels 5-8 can only be built if artillery is present; a 6 pounder stacked with militia will do the trick. • Level 3 entrenchments with artillery can block river supply; remember to turn on naval bombardment.• Don't use your useless generals to command troops garrisoned on waterways. If they are inactive, they won't bombard. Although they'd get a slight combat bonus with an incompetent general, the goal of those troops is to bombard passing boats, not to fight.• Entrenchments can be built both in and out of cities.• Build fall back entrenchments behind main defensive lines; use a place holder unit.• Use care in switching/moving units so entrenchment levels are not lost; leave a place holder unit.• If you create a new unit and placed it outside the city, after the turn is executed, the new unit, and any troops stacked with them, will always go into the city. This results in the loss of outside entrenchments. Make sure you wait a turn before putting new units into fortified lines outside of cities. After the first turn, new units will continue training outside.• Garrison VP cities near 50% loyalty; militia must be in the city to count.• Garrisons will sally, if ordered, only when an outside force arrives and attacks the besiegers.• Cavalry do not take part in assaults on forts.• A fort adds to the Patrol value equal that side's MC in the region.• To prevent National moral loss when your besieged units in a structure are conquered, consider using the special surrender order; if you do this, the NM and VP point loss is far less.

Navy• Manually rotate fully supplied transports to the naval boxes, so ships at sea maintain until ammunition is needed from a port; this works for both raiders and runners.• Posture in a box does not matter.• CSA leaders do not increase money or WS brought in by runners in blockade boxes.• CSA raiders can resupply at neutral ports.• CSA raiders in the Shipping Lanes Box take resources away from the Union, but don't earn you anything. Use your free frigate types as raiders. Use your free frigates as raiders in the shipping box; this will greatly reduce returns on Union Shipping.• Admirals will always move; but they may be delayed.• Put the admirals with your ironclads.• Brigs posted outside harbors can collect information about land forces through recon.• Place a brig with the Mississippi River fleet to increase search values.• Control the inland waterways. You'll be sorry if you don't. • Fleets on defensive posture allow your foe unrestricted river travel.• Four naval elements have a 90% chance to block cross river movement; you can't get higher than this value; a single friendly fighting ship/boat in the river region will negates this.• Blocking a river crossing is a 23% chance per element, up to a max of 90%. The ships can't be in passive posture or have evade special orders. When trying to interdict mid turn, it seems that if the ships aren't in position before the enemy begins to march across, then your foe will make it across. • A naval combat element blocks a land stack using Riverine Transportation from moving through a water region. There is a possibility of combat occurring in such a water region, but it does not necessarily occur. Once the encounter occurs, if the land stack survives, it will drop to the shore in PP (Passive Posture), where it remains for the rest of the turn as a normal land stack, subject to all other rules pertaining to land stacks.• Have a fleet waiting downstream, just behind a fort to secure river approaches.• If possible, on the turn before a naval battle, hit your foe's ships with a sea mine and the submarine RGD.• If you are playing with historical attrition on then naval units need to be in a harbor with a depot to receive a replacement element. They also need to be in passive posture.• Place a transport with every other blocking gunboat stack; gunboat stacks can draw supplies from neighboring transports in fair weather.• Gunboats carry the fewest amount of supplies, enough for 5 turns. Brigs and frigates carry 16 turns worth. Blockade squadrons hold enough for 50 turns and transports don't even eat food.• Build a naval engineer in each city earmarked to produce ironclads.• Cottonclads are surprisingly nice for their price.• Ships can bombard troops.• Consider sneaking ironclads up the Eastern coast to interfere with any amphibious operations there.• Any naval attack on a force landing troops will delay unloading for 5 more days.• The Union needs to lose just one landing and they will face a NM hit of huge proportions. When Federals have committed to a landing, count on them supporting it until the end, as they are fighting with their backs to the sea.• The Union usually lands with multiple divisions; you may need up to a 3000+ force to push the landing back into the sea. Engage them from the start, and keep them cut from supply so they run through what they brought with them.• It is possible for an invading force that has lost an invasion battle to retreat back onto the fleet from which it debarked.• The North will often try to invade where you are weak or absent to get a bridgehead, then move out to fight on even terms.• Any ship, if detected, traversing two regions adjacent to a fort's coastal guns will be bombarded. But if your movement only enters only one region next to a fort, you're fine.• If stacked separately, ships have a higher evasion status, but if stacked together, damage is spread out, so mostly cohesion is damaged, not hits. Durability rate of brigs is increased this way, especially if the stack is commanded by leader with naval evasion trait.• Use your staring replacement chits to build up your free, 1 element brigs to 2 elements.• Each CSA brig in a blockade sea box earns two dollars, or two WS, or one of each per turn.• If you want to build brigs, do so early in the game; it takes years to break even with the cost. Some believe runners are not worth building or fixing; there is a good chance the runners will not survive long enough to recover their expense.• Use 7-10 brigs per blockade box.• Place your runners in one blockade box; this will force the Federal player to station ships in an empty box to maintain the blockade %.• A Brown water blockade reduces the amount of cash a city produces by 50%. WS production is not affected. So if you spend money/men/materiel to enforce a brown blockade, the enemy only loses money. • The Union blockade % only impacts CS regions with harbors. So, that would make some CS industrial options quite a bit better than others. Greensboro, Atlanta, and, of course, Rome.• The danger of being intercepted by Blockade Flotillas is very small.• With Pickens, Monroe, New Orleans, and 5 flotillas in each blockade box, the North should have around a 50% blockade.• A 95% blockade will cost the CSA 40% of its city cash income per turn.• Conscripts and War Supply are not affected by the blockade.• Taking Fort Sumter and placing a single artillery therein will induce a blockade on Charleston; Charleston is the richest un-blockaded city the South has.• Blockade runners can be pulled to create a last ditch combat fleet.

Diplomacy• Declaring a complete cotton embargo earns the CSA 150$, 3 NM, and 5 VP.• Unless the Trent Affair escalates, there is next to no chance of foreign intervention.• The Foreign Entry Level can shift 1 point per turn in favor of the side with the higher NM, and one point per turn in favor of the side with the highest VP count. There is a 50% probability in each case.

Raising Units• Replacements take priority over new building if there is red to get out. But, if you are not seeing a lot of combat, especially early on, spend everything on new troops. Almost all Mid and late game spending goes to replacements.• When deciding what to build bear in mind that in the short term arty is more expensive but is cheaper in the long run than infantry since you don't have to buy arty replacements that often.• Early in the game, drain buildable units from Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee. It is extremely important for the South to access the Missouri and Kentucky build reinforcement pool. These units add a number of solid units which can otherwise not be a part of the game.• Drain frontline state unit pools before they are lost; you can only build state units if 1 of its tent cities is controlled.• Artillery and regular infantry for the Far West can be built in El Paso.• Build duration for a unit is indicated in the tooltip.• A standard, balanced division has the following elements: 2 cavalry, 4 artillery, 1 sniper, 10 infantry and a leader.• You may have 15 units maximum in a division. That's 1 leader and any 14 other units.• The CSA can make twenty Divisions with 7 line infantry, 3 conscripts, a sharpshooter, 2 conscript cavalry, a 6-lber and either 3 militia or 3 more artillery batteries.• Pure artillery divisions with a good officer have no penalties and several advantages.• If you have a brigade that is missing an element, click on that brigade icon and another icon for a unit that is exactly that missing element and combine the two.• Two single elements of militia can be merged into a weak brigade. This increases the militia’s battlefield survivability and returns one of the two initial units to the build pool. If you merge individual militia elements from different states of origin, the lesser powered militia element will change its state of origin to that of the higher powered element. It is possible to remove an out of state movement penalty by doing this.• Militia can upgrade to regular. It just takes an extra turn, since they go from militia to conscripts, then to regulars.• The chief advantage of militia is that their brigades have a command cost of 1, making them the cheapest to command. This suits them best for independent commands i.e. garrison duty.• Leaders with the training trait can train militia, volunteers or conscripts into regular brigades that only cost one CP.• During periods of heavy fighting, it is normal to spend everything on replacements for several turns.• NM influences the build duration of new units.• Most events creating special units are written using a statement which will either select a specific city/region to spawn the unit in, with an alternative area to spawn the unit if that city is not available, or a city/region where the unit will probably be spawned. If every eligible spawn location is captured, the unit will not spawn.

RDC• Most RGDs regenerate at start of the year. The cards cannot be accumulated beyond set caps.• Development cards can be used to raise an area's civilization level. This increases frontage and can allow the construction of tracks or roads that will assist in the transportation of supplies.• Use the Clearing and Development cards on poorly developed regions in NM and AR/MO to help with supply flow and movement.• Tracks and roads reduce the normal movement cost, each by their own fixed percentage , and the normal movement cost depends on the terrain and the development level of the region.• If you use Telegraph to increase development levels in key regions that produce high levels of money, you can make an area "rich" ie New Orleans & Richmond. This will increase the area's frontage, loyalty, and cut weather related attrition by 50%. However, in developed areas, attrition is already negated by the presence of a structure and the increase in cash production is so small, it is probable that in the end, Telegraph has little effect.• Hesitate before spending any resources to affect loyalty; there are a number of free ways to raise your percentage without using cash. • Units in a region with a structure take less attrition. Although each stockade costs 10 CS, building them in heavily used areas of high attrition may limit loss.• Redoubt are forts built by RGD. They are cheaper than forts, but you only receive 1 redoubt card a year.• Once successfully played, the Runner RGD produces 8 WS a turn for 6 turns; that works out to 48 WS per NM, a rather high price to pay for 1 NM.• When playing the Draft or Requisition cards, keep from lowering the amount of resources produced per turn by using them in cities that do not, or will not, have resource producing structures.• Export Cotton facts:- The South gets 6 Export Cotton RGD's in the autumn of each year.- If per chance the Cotton Rot event successfully fires, the South loses 4 Export Cotton RGD's.- If per chance the Export Cotton event fires, 1 RGD is exchanged for $50.- If the CS player plays an Export Cotton RGD, its success is guaranteed, but the remittance is only $15.• If you don't play cotton cards at all, you should be able to sell about 20% of your bales at the 50$ rate.• If the Union takes Matagorda, it will not stop the cotton RGD from being played.• If you have 0% MC in a region, Partisans cannot be formed by RDC.• The CSA doesn't get access to the partisans cards until Jan '62.• Use the Disinformation and Cavalry Screening RGDs to disappear. This might allow you to extract your force from a dangerous encirclement.• Disinformation and Cavalry Screens seem to be pretty powerful at what they do. Your opponent can use Spies and Deep Recon to counter, but chances are they will fail to do so. Spies are a 50% chance. However, Deep Recon can't be played on regions your foe controls. So if you just lost a battle and are stuck in the same region as the victor, then your Cavalry Screen is guaranteed to work.• If successful, it is possible the RGD cavalry screen will allow your force across a river into an area containing enemy forces without initiating combat. • Raid the North and use the RGD plunder cards. This can earn up to a couple of hundred dollars a year with little effort or risk; it is not necessary to control the city or area when the card is played.• Don't forget the Indian pillage cards; they don't make as much as the plunder, but it is still something.• Several of the cards allow the player to reap Victory Points. In a close game played out to the bitter end, a player who doesn't miss the money might be able to convert cash into VP's to tip the scales back in his favor. Quite a few VP's can be "bought" each year this way. • Stationary fleets can be damaged with the sea mine and submarine RGD's; each mine hit earns 1 NM, a sub hit earns 3 NM.• The scorched earth RDC will provide a 20% cohesion gain to 50 elements.

Production• the AI receives increases to money, conscripts, and war supplies at each higher difficulty setting.• The best way to track changes in income, or any other resource, is via the regions tab in the ledger. The numbers reported there are the modified numbers accounting for loyalty and NM.• Anything under 50% loyalty will produce 100% of the baseline production for its structures, with the amount increasing from there, supposedly, up to 150% of baseline at 100% loyalty. • Loyalty and NM effects performance, number of recruits and economic output.• The formula for production of $, WS, and conscripts is something like: Output=base*(.50+loyalty/100)*(.50+NM/200). To summarize: If a region increases loyalty 10 points (x points), its output will increase by 10 percent (x percent) of the base. If NM increases by 10 points, output will increase in every owned region by 5 percent of the base; rounding is done at the region level.• A region's loyalty will change in favor of a Faction each turn when a percentile dice roll lower than their total Police Value is rolled. A total Police Value >= 100 will thus automatically result in a 1% Loyalty gain.• Station troops in high production but low loyalty regions. As loyalty increases so does production. New Orleans and Mobile are good places to do this.• The Hated_Occupant trait will apply with extreme severity Martial Law in any rebellious city he has to pacify; this leader will increase Patrol Values by 150%, and force Loyalty below 30 to rise to 30, or force loyalty above 50 to decrease to 50, changing 5 per turn.• If the North has more than 500 WS, 50 WS will be changed to 50$. This function does not work for the South.• Captured War Supplies show up in the Messages as rifles captured, 100 rifles = 1 WS.• Each round the USA has a chance of x% to lose 1 inflation point; if you have 24% inflation you have a 24% chance to drop to 23%. The CSA chance to reduce inflation is half of this stated value.• Use financial options right away; they regenerate 14 turns later.• If you're short on money, print those graybacks.• Each mine in the Far West is worth 10$. There are 3 mines: one in the Sacramento region; one in Virginia City, NV; and one just a bit south-west of Denver.• If you want the goldfields, use demonstrators to lower the loyalty to the point you can muster copperheads or create a swarm of partisans. If the North fails to garrison, or only weakly garrisons, the mines, this is a cheap and efficient way to grab the gold.• Destroying the two gold mines in Virginia City and Colorado can be done with partisans created through RGD cards in recruited in South Park and western Arizona. Partisans have the pillager trait and will auto destroy the mines if they take the region; they will only destroy the mines if the region is loyal to the USA.• The easiest way to increase $ production is to capture Farm Fields/Plantations. Each is worth $3 for you and - $3 for the opponent, a swing of $6, which is not bad for capturing an out of the way and undefended rural region.• Farmfields and plantations can be destroyed by a unit with the pillager trait. This will only happen if the region is loyal to the other side. The map icon will not be removed but its destruction can be seen in the message log and the region ledger.• Recruiting depots, cities with a tent, give 5 conscripts per turn to the owner; they work for both sides. This is modified by NM. If the North occupies a state’s tent city, conscripts for that state will equal zero.• The CSA’s early bottleneck is always WS. By the beginning of 1862 it becomes $, and as the war progresses it becomes CS.• If you destroy a rail line in a loyal region with a regular unit, you will receive War Supply. Each cut rail produces 1.6 WS, rounded done, so cutting 10 or 5 or 2 a turn gives the best return with the least waste.• To keep your supply network intact and to avoid limiting important movement by rail, consider tearing up tracks in Florida, Texas and other unused places.• A call for volunteers can be done every six months; mobilization can be done once a year from 1862 on.• During high morale, as initial CSA morale is, one receives the same number of CS from $1.5 as the $2 bounty.• Consider not using the 2$ pay per each volunteer, $750 is not worth the extra 250 conscripts.• If your NM is over 120, consider not paying anything. You will still get almost as many conscripts as you can afford to use.• Recruiting officers increase the national level conscript production. So long as the city is >level 5; recruiting officers are best placed in cities with high loyalty.• When you lose men through attrition, a large portion of the conscripts are returned to the pool. When you lose men in battle, a smaller portion of the conscripts are returned to your pool.• The Prisoner Exchange option is bugged and does not work; instead of giving 10 conscripts to both sides, it gives 10 to the US twice.• Build artillery on areas with industry.• If it is green, it will build.• Build an Ironworks as soon as possible; some players consider building two ironworks to be a good investment.• Powder Mills and Arsenals are not necessary until later in the game when a shortage of ammo production may occur.• Harbors and depots generate 1 ammunition per level.• Industrialization does not affect build pools or production rates.• If you are able to lift the blockade on Richmond somehow you will get a lot of extra production. It may not be worth the cost though, Monroe is a tough nut to crack.